It's Alive!

Given that I couldn't use my iPod anyway and the warranty is so very over, I opened it up to see what was in there. I accidentally fixed it. With the case off I could see the switch for the hold button so I moved it to the off position and when I put the case back on it woke up! Yay!

Winter, Cats and a Broken iPod

The poor poor kitty. My indoor cat, Oscar, recently decided he was going to make a stand for kitty freedom everywhere. He would escape from the tyrannical incarceration that is his padded kitty bed, private room and canine playthings, to terrorize the neighborhood; take that you foolish humans!

He's played this game before, no one is particularly worried about it. He doesn't usually get far, as passing birds can kick the mighty hunter's ass without much difficulty, but rustling leaves and smallish bugs watch out!

So the other day, when it was -20 Celsius or so, as I was saying goodbye to my sweetie, I heard the graceful sound of the 3 legged elephant stampede that is Oscar sneaking quickly. He was too late, the door was closed, the mad dash for kitty freedom was over before it had begun.

He switched tactics at this point and looked up at me with big eyes and snuggly fur, anyone who's seen Puss in Boots from Shrek knows the look.

Out of an impulse born of sheer mischief I thought to myself; "Ok, let him have what he wants.. sucker.. heh heh heh.. it's -20 out there."

I opened the door.

Oscar let out a wild whoop of triumph over the humans and charged out onto the deck.......

It took about 3 steps for him to come to a complete halt, about 5 seconds for the full impact of -20 to hit home and almost no time at all to about turn and stomp back to the house.

Apparently at -20 the metal step of my doorway is far too cold for indoor kitty feet so as I went and picked him up he explained to me that winter is a dirty dirty trick and it's all my fault.

Oscar is currently asleep in my clean laundry and will consider stirring for breakfast if it's wet food. Kitty liberation is waiting til spring.



Oh yeah.. I also dropped my iPod once too often, drat :(

Correction

Regarding my apparently less than fair assessment of "shopping around" Clint would like me to add that he saved 800 dollars on the bed and has, in fact, had numerous victories over the commerce gods. I bow to the master.. but I still want Starbucks.

A brand new bed!!

Recently, Clint and I realised we were still sleeping on the $100 Ikea mattress we bought when we got married. We realised this when neither of us could move on waking up. The springs poking through were also a clue. You know you're in rough shape when the guest bed looks inviting.

Clint, bless him, is a shopper, where I tend more toward the get in.. pay.. get out method. One day, while sitting alone, at the top of the hill, at my weather station1 Clint phoned because he'd been shopping and bought a new bed. He wanted to know if I was mad that he'd gone without me. I really, really wasn't. I was thrilled that I hadn't had to tag along for the inevetible shopping around2. It was all good...ish.

The down side was that Monday I got to sit around home waiting for delivery. It wasn't all bad. I got bored enough to do housework.

The new bed is about to be phenomenal. There are 3 issues we are working on prior to true phenominality3.

1. Unfortunately, the box spring didn't fit up the steps because, as it turns out, new box springs are 2 inches thicker than the one we have in the guest room. That worked out alright. Sleep Country is sorting us out.. yay! That means the old new box spring is living in my living room while we wait for delivery of the smaller, low profile, split, new new box spring.

2. The mattress is way thicker than the old one so our sheets didn't fit. This led to shopping around2 for new sheets the evening we got the bed.

3. I'm short. What with the 20" mattress sitting on our old standard box spring I have to make a running jump to get in. With any luck the new new box spring will be thin enough for me to get into bed without feeling like I should be wearing pajamas with feet and clutching a teddy bear. I can always build steps I guess...

Hooray for pocket coil, eurotop enduced sleep. Now how do I get the dogs to share?

Footnotes: 1. ahhh.. paradise
2. Shopping around: defined as: sitting in the car trying to stop at Starbucks drive through while Clint goes to EVERY store that has the remotest possibility of having the quest item for 5 bucks less.
3. I made that word up.

It's been a while since I posted anything so here is the riveting story of the last month and a bit.. I worked.

OK... I also saw the whole family and got some awesome Christmas presents which was pretty cool. The best presents were: a truck box from the in laws and an iPod transmitter from my uncles.

I got accepted into the University of Waterloo distance program like I was hoping so I can finish my degree up north (woohoo). I hope they let smartasses be physicists.. lol.

The pic is of all the Hall offspring. Grandpa's 2 sons are in the middle and their kids are beside them. It's so rare to get us all in the same place at the same time that when it happens people grab cameras. This one's from Grandpa's funeral at the end of November.

Well, that's all I have for this morning. I'll try to be more interesting next time :)

Go Rush Go

Last night I went to my very first lacrosse game. What a blast! The Rush lost but I had a great time anyway. There is tons of energy in the arena, the game is very fast and the refs let the players who really want to fight go at it at centre field. What a great way to spend an eveing!

Kiap

As you may or may not know, Clint and I recently started TaeKwonDo together (we're bonding). Tonight I took my uncle with me to fulfill part of the White Belt Checklist (yay John). I even got to start the testing so in 10 days I should be a yellow stripe. It's way fun. This is our school: http://www.tienlung.com

Nothing Endures but Change

Just to be consistent, my schedule has changed from Alert in February to Eureka in April with a few months of Stony Plain in between. I'm kinda sad about not getting to see Alert but not too sad because I really like Eureka (I have found it!.. teehee.. couldn't resist).

Shameless Advertising

One of my friends just released her very first solo flute album. The link to hear samples or order the CD is now on the side bar.

If anyone is interested

Hi everyone. This is for all the cool stuff that happens away from Ellsmere Island! Prepare to be dazelled by the exceptional dullness of my normal life.